Overall
Discussion Paper
Athens Printing Company is a small family owned business. The company
provides copy services for commercial businesses, as well as individuals.
Athens Printing Company showed a need for improvement in various areas,
but its shipping department showed the greatest need. Our group, The
Consultants, suggested
changes in the department that would increase efficiency and reduce costs
associated with mistakes.
Our process improvement plan targeted areas in shipping which
created excess costs and wasted time. Areas such as customers receiving
wrong items were our main concern. Mistakes generated wasted time which
consisted of paperwork, packing, and stocking of returned items. Through
process improvement we hoped to decrease costs and create benefits that
would encourage use of the new system. Costs associated with excess
demand were also addressed.
The first step in our process was to separate dead stock from
active stock physically. This step helped create a more organized
workplace and create more much needed space. Next, we clearly labeled
each item showing stock number, title and minimum quantity required in
stock. By displaying the minimum quantity, we hoped to create a more
efficient means of stocking books according to anticipated demand. And
last, we organized stock numerically to construct a more user-friendly
system and encourages use.
Mid-term goals and long-term goals were also considered in the
implementatiods could be accounted for to show necessary production
times. Sluggish sales can also be addressed in certain product lines,
which could lead management to address the profitability of each
individual book.
The cost to implement the process was a very minimal cost in
comparison to what the company saved. The total cost ended up to be almost
$40 dollars, which consisted of mostly supplies. The total cost compared
to the savings was about 1.34%. This created a good situation for The
Athens Printing Company where cash flow has been a problem. The cost was
also very pleasing to the management because their resistant and severe
change.
In conclusion, our process improvement project was a very exciting
experience The Athens Printing Company. They, being a small family-owned business,
were fertile ground for our suggestions. The implementation was
constrained by a shortage of time and money at The Athens Printing
Company. However, this tended not to be a problem since we were ever
mindful of the do-able aspect of our proposal. Fortunately, the management
was quit receptive and our ideas were approved and implemented. Once
implementation had been accomplished, a semi chain-reaction was set off.
They are more motivated to seek process improvement in other areas of
their business now that it has been demonstrated that change does not bear
excess cost.